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Bars where Pete has had a Drink (3,648 bars; 1,586 bars in Seattle) - Click titles below for Lists:

Bars where Pete has had a drink

Monday, November 28, 2011

#1572 #S932 - Phoenicia, Seattle - 10/5/2011

My ratings are focused on bars, not restaurants, and thus this wine bar does not quite get my highest recommendation; but it would if I were based on the food. It is my favorite food in West Seattle and among my top four favorite pizza locations in the city (after Serious Pie, it is in a rough tie with Bar Del Corso and Delancey). The menu is Mediterranean focused, with some very fine tapas, and rotating special entrees on the chalkboard. I had the Sausage & Peppers pizza (house-made fennel sausage, Mama’s Lil Peppers, fresh and whole milk mozzarella, Grana Padano, parsley, extra-virgin olive oil, and red sauce), which was terrific, and the Fiery Diver Sea Scallops, also very nice.

Phoenicia opened on California Ave in 1974, moved to Queen Anne from 1980 to 1992, then relocated to its present space back in West Seattle, across the road from Alki Beach. After the much loved founder, Hussein Khazaal, passed away in 2009, his wife and daughters remodeled and continue to run the place, with a menu revamped by Byron Hummel (who trained under Charles Walpole, now chef at Anchovies & Olives). The family are friendly and engaging, and I especially like stepping into their warm confines on a rainy Seattle evening.